Contents

History

As a warning to the incoming army of Daenerys Targaryen, the Great Masters crucified 163 slave-children and put them in the road towards the city, pointing towards it.[1] Undeterred, Daenerys arrived before the gates, so the Great Masters sent out their champion, but he was promptly defeated by Daario Naharis, one of the Queen's commanders.[2] Then, Daenerys incited a slave revolt in which many Great Masters were killed and the gates of the city were opened for her. In her first act was retribution, 163 Great Masters were crucified along the streets of Meereen, while Daenerys took residence in the Great Pyramid.[3] Soon, the Second Sons took hold of the Meereenese fleet, and the precarious position of Slaver's Bay made her decide to remain in Meereen to rule over Slaver's Bay and enforce her abolition of slavery, ensuring the downfall of the Great Masters.[4] However, having been shown that her abolition of slavery left many former servants in an even more precarious position, Daenerys begrudgingly accepted the creation of one-year contracts, effectively allowing the Great Masters to reintroduce slavery.[5]

The former aristocrats still physically make up one fourth of the city's population, and Daenerys struggles to rule over all of her new subjects, freedmen and former slave-masters alike. A resistance movement against Daenerys's rule over Meereen forms among the former ruling class, known as the Sons of the Harpy.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the six greatest and most powerful of the old aristocratic slaving families of Meereen are said to be Zhak, Hazkar, Ghazeen, Merreq, Loraq, and Pahl. The House of Pahl hates Daenerys most of all, after their champion Oznak zo Pahl was killed outside of its gates (by Daario in the TV series, but by Strong Belwas in the books). Oznak's father commanded the city gates and he also died when they fell, and three of Oznak's uncles were among the slave masters that Daenerys had crucified.

Besides these main six, there are also several lesser aristocratic Houses in Meereen: Dhazak, Galare, Kandaq, Naqqan, Quazzar, Reznak, Rhazdar, Uhlez, and Yherizan. The House of Kandaq and House of Reznak were not strong Houses before Daenerys's conquest, so they try to curry favor with her more than some of the other Houses - in an attempt to gain more power in the city. The current head of the Ghiscari religion in Meereen is the Green Grace (high priestess) Galazza Galare, who became a strong voice for peace and obedience to lawful authority, hoping to return stability to the city. As a result, the House of Galare is the least hostile to Daenerys's rule.

Aristocratic families in Slaver's Bay are consistently referred to in the format "House of Loraq", not simply "House Loraq" - compared to how in Westeros, the format "House of Lannister" is rarely if ever used instead of simply "House Lannister".

In the novels, Yezzan zo Qaggaz is actually one of the Wise Masters from Yunkai, morbidly obese and one of the leading slave-masters. The TV series heavily condensed the role so when he appears in Season 5, he is just a normal-looking slave-trader who purchases Tyrion and Jorah at auction when they arrive in Meereen - without specifying if he is actually a slave-master "from" Meereen, or if he is a Yunkish slaver-master who just happens to be in Meereen for the Great Games.